It was supposed to be a straightforward stage to open the Tour de France. But crashes and mechanicals saw a large number of Dan Martin's rivals lose time; a scenario which will not exactly upset him. Today Fernando Gaviria made his Tour debut; winning and taking the race lead, above.
Dan Martin already almost one minute up on many rivals
Dan Martin is already almost one minute up on many of his rivals for the Tour de France general classification after the opening stage.
Crashes and mechanicals in the finale of stage 1 saw some of the top contenders for the top 10 lost contact and not regain the bunch.
The stage – some 201km from Noirmoutier-en-l'Île to Fontenay-le-Comte – was won by Fernando Gaviria. The QuickStep man was quickest in a sprint from a 65-man group.
He won from Peter Sagan (Bora-hansgrohe) and Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) to take victory and yellow on the first Tour de France stage of his career.
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Dan Martin (UAE Team Emirates) was safely in the group, placing 52nd on the day.
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But a number of the big guns weren’t in the reduced peloton. Reigning champion Chris Froome (Team Sky) crashed onto a grass verge in the final 10km and lost 51 seconds.
And also in the same group was Richie Porte (BMC Racing) as well as Simon Yates (Mitchelton Scott).
Other rivals of Martin’s were also there including Ion Izagirre (Bahrain Merida), Laurens ten Dam (Team Sunweb) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Bahrain Merida).
And in a group a further 24 seconds back, and 1:15 down in Dan Martin, was Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Egan Bernal (Team Sky).
With Martin 6th in the Tour last year and looking to go better this time out; the drama impacting all of the aforementioned riders played into his hands today.
The late crashes took some riders out while others were caught out by the splits the spills case. Quintana broke wheels and puncture.
Tomorrow’s stage is a flat 182.5km from Mouilleron-Saint-Germain to La Roche-sur-Yon.
There follows the stage 3 TT, which looks like a weakness for Martin. However, he has already gained the time that it looks inevitable he will lose in the TTT.
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